Cart

No products in the cart.

Understanding the problem

Most companies in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will claim that the water provided by local municipalities is really bad – this is not true and a misconception. Most countries in GCC use advance reverse osmosis desalination systems. UAE, in particular, has one of the largest desalination plants in the world. the water provided by our local municipalities have to meet international standards and GCC countries have ensured the water provided in our pipelines is safe for consumption.

The main problem lies in our pipelines. When the construction of buildings and villas are finished, the first thing the construction companies are supposed to do is flush out the pipelines and clean the water tanks. unfortunately, due to rapid construction across the GCC region over the last 15 years, this crucial step has been omitted in majority of construction projects and as a result, pipelines contains a lot of dirt and bacteria.

Consequently, the Facility Management Companies managing our properties are forced to add chlorine to the water to disinfect it and to ensure we don’t get sick.

Problems caused by chlorine

Unfortunately, chlorine can have many adverse effects on hair and skin. Showering in chlorinated water can cause the following issues.

5- Showering in chlorinated water is harmful to a pregnant woman and unborn child and can cause development issue.

For a more detailed explanation and scientific references to the mentioned issues please refer this article (Why chlorine is harmful).

Myth of removing chloramines

Chloramines are used instead of chlorine by some public water suppliers overseas since chloramines are hardly absorbed through the skin it can be a better alternative to chlorine. However, chloramines are much harder to remove and are not used in any middle eastern country. Many of the shower filter brands and especially vitamin C ones claim that they can also remove chloramines. there is plenty of evidence that proves that these claims are false. While they may reduce chloramines slightly, it is highly dubious that they actually eliminate chloramines because the flow of water through a shower filter is too high to result in contact of the water with the filtering compound for a long enough duration of time. Be sure to check out the claims of these chloramine filter manufacturers. Ask for independent research that proves the effectiveness of their shower filters. You probably won’t find it.

Types of shower filter

1- KDF Filters: KDF is considered as the most effective and most expensive material in removing chlorine. KDF 55 Medium Designed specifically for removing or reducing chlorine and water-soluble heavy metals. The main advantage of KDF over other mediums is that it works in hot water. The process medium received NSF International Certification and is certified by NSF to NSF/ANSI Standard 42. However, using KDF 55 by itself can remove up to 70% of chlorine hence for best results KDF needs to be mixed with others mediums such as calcium sulfite to achieve optimal results.

Calcium sulfate is a new filter material, which can remove chlorine in the water instantly to attain the purpose of purifying, mineralizing the water quality and adjusting the PH value of the water. Meanwhile, it can also sterilize various pathogenic bacteria and restrain multiplying of the microorganism. It also has the strong feature of absorption to that organic substance, harmful or toxic metal ion and bacteria. Consequently, the shower water is energized as it flows through the filter.

2- Vitamin C Filters: The claim that Vitamin C filters remove chlorine is a complicated one. We’ve tried to find independent research that shows the effectiveness without success. In an interview by Bloomberg Neal Langerman at the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Health and Safety. “From a chemistry standpoint, vitamin C does react with chlorine and consume it. The concept has even been proven by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But the filters are all hype”. The main problem is there is not enough time for the reaction would be complete—the neutralization. as a result, vitamin c filter cannot really remove more than 40% of chlorine. Vitamin c filter companies usually try to mask this fact by adding aroma to the shower and claiming other health benefits of vitamin C for hair and skin.

According to Dr. Patricia Farris (Dermatologist) “While a vitamin C-infused shower sounds good in theory, it will probably provide very little skin benefit,” says Farris. “Vitamin C must be formulated and packaged in a very careful way in order to stabilize it and prevent it from becoming oxidized [which makes it ineffective]. If it’s just sprayed out of the shower, the majority of it will be inactivated rather quickly as it is exposed to air.”

Carbon Filters: Activated carbon filter can be actually effective in removing chlorine. however, the main issue with carbon filters is that their performance drops more than 50% in hot water.

hence Carbon filters are virtually useless in showers because they do not work when the water is warm, they can reduce the water pressure and they also get clogged fairly quickly.

4- other filters: There is a wide variety of new mediums used in shower filtration such as various types of mineral balls, NMC, KDF coated balls, etc. These new technologies are cheaper alternatives to KDF and some add additional benefits, however when we carried a series of independent tests none of them can remove more than 50% of chlorine unless they are used together with KDF.

2- Our Product is designed specifically for the region: We initially designed Pure blue shower filter to solve our personal problems with hair and skin in UAE. We started by carefully analyzing the water in GCC and tried to design a product specifically for the middle east. The water analysis helped us to understand the following:

Chloramines are not used in the GCC so there is no benefit of using a vitamin c filter and they are usually the least effective filters in removing chlorine.

Carbon filters won’t work in the middle east because of the high temperature of the water.

3- We use the highest quality of Raw material: As mentioned vitamin c, NMC, KDF coated balls are much cheaper alternatives to KDF 55 and for a manufacturer, this means higher margins. however, from the start, our main goal was to create an effective product. We use the highest quality of KDF 55 supplied from the United States and Calcium sulfate directly from Japan to ensure we can achieve our main goal which is removing 98% chlorine.